Ada Louise Huxtable, the dean of architecture critics, died today. She was the first architecture critic for The New York Times and the first journalist to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1970. Writing into her 90s for the Wall Street Journal, she contributed a piece on New York City's Public Library just last month.

"Every architecture critic will be in her debt forever," said architecture critic Paul Goldberger on Twitter. | Jan. 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

Local eco-friendly music festival Rock the Green will not be returning for its planned third installment in Veterans Park Sept. 14.

"We learned that our title sponsor was acquired by another company, and will no longer be able to support Rock the Green," according to a statement posted late Friday afternoon on the festival's Facebook page, referring to Veolia Environmental Services. "For that reason, we have decided to schedule our next festival for Saturday, September 13, 2014. While we're disappointed that we won't host a festival in 2013, we will be back at it next year, continuing our commitment to the high caliber of talent and environmental awareness that defines the Rock the Green festival." | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article(4)

Rereading the classics or revisiting some of the pillars of the symphonic repertoire can be like catching up with a dear friend — you're reminded of the things that drew you to that friend in the first place, and you learn more about her as well.

Such was the experience at Friday morning's Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performance, which featured vibrant performances of Brahms' Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 4, led by MSO music director Edo de Waart. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

Don't be a martyr. Don't suffer in silence while your children have all the summer reading fun.

Don't you want to soothe or delight or stimulate your little gray cells with some non-required reading this summer? Wouldn't you enjoy the challenge of figuring out how and why Kate Atkinson keeps bringing that woman back to life? What J.R.R. Tolkien thought of King Arthur? How comedian Jim Gaffigan lives in a New York apartment with five kids? | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

My main goal in reading Khaled Hosseini's new book, "And the Mountains Echoed," was to avoid crying. I failed within the first 20 pages. And by the last page, I was bawling.

So, yes, much like Hosseini's earlier works, "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns," his latest book is bathed in sadness and despair, with the requisite occasional ray of hope. Much like those other two books, "And the Mountains Echoed" is powerful and haunting. And much like the country it describes, it is not easy to forget. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

Rhapsody in Black: The Life and Music of Roy Orbison. By John Kruth. Backbeat Books. 256 pages. $27.99.

When biographer John Kruth writes that Roy Orbison's "life seemed to mirror that of Job's from the Old Testament," he is not stretching too far to make a point. The singer's first wife died in a motorcycle accident with Orbison just a few hundred yards down the road ahead of her; two of his sons died as boys in a house fire while the singer was overseas. Poor management contributed to a series of bad albums and to Orbison being nearly forgotten.

Yet, like Job, as Kruth tells the tale in "Rhapsody in Black," Orbison had a nice comeback, with a doting (if strong-willed) second wife, admiring friends in the Traveling Wilburys and the hit single "You Got It." Unfortunately, that 1989 hit was posthumous; Orbison died the year before at 52. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article(1)

Thousands of years ago, glaciers bypassed the southwestern corner of Wisconsin, creating the Driftless Area, an "island of land" with rolling hills and deep valleys, rivers and coulees, ancient woodlands and prairies, small towns and farms. This topographical wonder is David Rhodes country.

In his new novel "Jewelweed," Rhodes revisits the region and the fictitious small town of Words, a place he so beautifully brought to life in his previous work "Driftless." The residents here are as complex, interdependent and finely tuned as the ecosystems surrounding them. Even the smallest change can shift the balance. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

"Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul," declares Melville's Ishmael in the opening paragraph of "Moby-Dick," "I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

Gavin Weald, the 46-year-old protagonist of Monique Roffey's "Archipelago" — a novel that openly grapples with Melville's great whale of a book — knows what Ishmael means. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

I didn't think so either, until the Milwaukee Repertory Theater treated us two years ago to "The Bomb-itty of Errors," an imaginative redo of "The Comedy of Errors" that rapped its way into my heart. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article

The Art City contributors, once again, are on the line with their best suggestions for art to see this weekend. From our phone line to your ears, may there be some art adventuring this holiday weekend.

Chicago rapper Keith "Chief Keef" Cozart, who was arrested earlier this week in Atlanta, will not perform Saturday at 618 Live on Water as planned, reports WTMJ-TV (Channel 4)

In January, Cozart was ordered to spend about two months in juvenile detention for violating probation on a weapons conviction. He had received probation for pointing a gun at police in 2012. | May 24, 2013»Read Full Article(14)